And this is what I have to say.

Category: Weight Loss
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I’ve been away from the scale for about 2 months. Since the first of the year my weight-loss has been pretty non-existent compared to last year. I’ve been hovering around 174 all year. In March I left my favorite gym and the scale I’ve been using for weigh-ins since June 2011. I decided that since I couldn’t be consistent (sticking with the same scale) I would just focus on some non-scale victories for right now. So far my favorites have been buying a size large t-shirt for the first time since early high school and comfortably wearing a size 14 trouser. Woot-woot!

Not wearing the t-shirt, but a top from NY & Co. where I have never been able to shop before

What non-scale victories are you celebrating or are you a slave to the scale?

Good morning and Happy Easter! I woke up early this morning to enjoy the beautiful sunny weather we are having in Richmond and to get my meal planning done for the week.

Around February the 1500 calories/day diet I’ve been on since June seemed to become extremely insuficient. I felt ravenous on a regular basis which did not make for a good look come meal times. I had another InBody evaluation done and whatdoyouknow, my basal metabolic rate (BMR) had increased quite a bit to 1477 kcal. Your BMR is the number of calories you burn per day at rest. Just living and breathing. Only getting 23 more calories than that a day with 3-5 days of exercise per week equaled one hungry girl. I’m definitely still in weight loss mode (I need to remind myself of this constantly right now) so I’ve up my daily calorie intake to 1600 calories/day. This is the first week so we shall see how it goes.

I don’t what will be on which day yet, but here is what I’m planning to cook this week:

Lasagna Rolls with fresh spinach

Salmon cakes, sautéed string beans, brown rice

Turkey (cutlets or tenderloin), kale, roasted Japanese sweet potatoes

Chicken, buttered carrots

Tilapia, couscous, Brussels sprouts

Babaganoush

Hoppin’ John, cornbread

Zucchini bread

Orange-Cranberry Wheatgerm muffins

Boiled eggs

Whew, that’s a bit of food! But, I’m a fan of the freezer and no eating out this week for either of us. What are you cooking this week?

This week I finally got a meal plan done early enough that I could get my grocery shopping done on Saturday. I’m a bit of a freak when it comes to grocery shopping. There are usually multiple stores involved, color coded lists and the like. On more then one occasion I’ve been complimented on my cart organization. But I digress.

8x10 Plan Your Work Work Your Plan Print from bellabyte on Etsy.com

I’ve been fighting a loosing battle with meal planning lately. I will get it accomplished sometime on Sunday afternoon, but then the day is gone so very little to no cooking/prepping gets done. Then I’m cobbling together meals which usually equals eating out. Well, I’m tightening the belt on planning and eating out before I have to loosen my belt. I’m loving my almost-size-14 waist a bit too much for that! This week’s plan is pretty okay I think – there are 3 vegetarian-esque days but I’m thinking I could always squeeze more vegetables into the plan. My ambition burned out today before I could plan all 5 meals for all 7 days but I will get to that tomorrow morning so I can be ready for the week. Here’s whats on tap for dinner and subsequently lunch for the next day:

I have really enjoyed and benefited from the online fitness community. Reading blogs of other folks who are on their fitness journey has really helped me on mine. Two of the blogs that I read pretty regularly (this and this) mentioned the Spring Chick Challenge, so I made my way over to the Real Chicks Getting Fit site to check it out. SCORE! I found a treasure trove of even more folks blogging about getting healthy! I have found that challenging myself with a goal is a good thing, so I was down for a challenge (or two) in the new year.

The Spring Chick Challenge is hosted by Stormy@ Big Butt Theory, is 11 weeks running from January 2 – March 19, and has the following requirements:

Commit to a NSV (non scale victory) to be assessed at the start and the conclusion of the challenge.

Commit to a set of nutrition parameters and track via MyFitnessPal or Sparkpeople or WW.

Commit to a set of exercise parameters. These can be as loose or as flexible as you feel work for your personality, schedule, etc.

Commit to blogging at least twice weekly and 1 of those times must be you check in with a complete up date on your progress. All other blogs could include new insights, results of weekly challenges, or just letting others know how you are doing.

Commit to support... both giving and receiving. Check others blogs and comment as you feel motivated to do.

Here are my goals:

Non-scale victory

Keep my blood pressure in a healthy, normal range: assessed in December 2011 with my physician and finally in the 120′s/80′s! Will check once per week.

Get to a comfortable dress size 14: currently a size 16, closer to an 18 in the hips/thighs.

Nutrition

Continue to use MyFitnessPal.com to track nutrition and keep calories around 1400 per day.

Continue to get at least 64 fluid oz of water daily

Keep carbohydrate grams per meal from grain sources below 25.

Exercise

Complete weight workout and some form of interval training (45 min – 1 hour) 3 times per week; continue to progress in the 9 week Couch-to-5K training program 3 times per week; continue to progress in the 100 Push-up Challenge 3 times per week.

Blogging

Share with you guys 2 times per week (this will be the REAL challenge!)

Support

Doing it! Commenting on blog posts, connecting with folks on Twitter, and connecting with folks on MyFitnessPal.